Typhons . . .

It's been a long time since I posted anything. Sorry about that. I have been taking pictures, I just haven't found the time to post! We have had several Typhoons this past month. Fortunately none of them actually hit our part of the island. We had a smaller Category 1 hit the north part of the island a couple of weeks ago which caused damage. Today we've had Typhoon Chaba in the area. It was on course to come right our way but fortunately this Typhoon, which registered at a Category 4 this morning, changed courses. Although it is was 115 miles away when the video below was taken, you can still see the strength of the winds. This Video was taken during TCCOR 1. I wish I would have gotten the camera out at the more intense times (TCCOR 1C or TCCOR 1 E). Anyway. You don't get to see anything amazing- it's just the wind and the rain. But for those of you who have never experienced a typhoon, a small sample ;)


The noise you are hearing is the wind...

Lalee and her camera

This is a video of Lalee trying to show everyone where she lives.

Becca's Birthday

Becca's birthday was on the last Monday before school started this year. Ms. Brenda made her cupcakes that she shared with all the neighbor kids and then mom and Lalee took her out for a surprise- pedicures!

This is Lalee before our pedicures trying to decide what she wanted her toes to look like. There are 100s and 100s of pictures / styles to choose from.

We all settled down for a little bit of pampering.
This is Becca after deciding she wanted rainbows and smiley faces :)

After 40 minutes of foot massage and care came the drying lamps.

Of course we had dinner, cake and ice cream and opened presents!

Randomness

As I was cleaning off memory cards I ran across a lot of fun pictures and videos from this past year that I haven't done anything with. I decided I'd try to post a couple random memories throughout the next week or two to share with you all. There are lots so I'm not sure how many (or how few if I don't have time) I'll post. It'll likely be just a mosh-posh of memories but maybe you'll smile. WARNING: the videos were created by the kids and they may induce confusion, dizziness. Also, parents can not be judged harshly for content of the video taken without their knowledge! Enjoy...
There are often little 'flee market' type places on the side of the road, especially up north where it's almost like miniature outdoor pawn shops. You find the most interesting things. Notice the larger-than-Pete sized monster in the background, the large handmade pots to the side, flowers, etc. It's always amusing to see what you can find and even more amusing coming up with reasons why the kids can not bring home a 7 foot monster!
This is Lalee on one of our fruit and veggie shopping trips. Because produce costs so much on base we typically shop for it off base at little mom-and-pop lean to like produce stands.
A picture of a boat in a pond. I shared it because you can see a lot of the local vegetation and the colors and style of the boat are very common things to see in ponds.

Meandering up North

After weeks of rainy weekends we finally had a beautiful Saturday! Not exactly knowing where we were headed, we got our swim suits on, loaded up on snacks and set off on some of the more narrow and curvy back roads of the east side of the island. As we drove further up into the not-very-populated Nago area we began to see some of the lingering destruction from the recent Typhoon which hit the top part of the island with Kadena only feeling the side effects. Seeing the Typhoons aftermath up north (even 2 weeks later) made us appreciate the protection of our concrete homes even more!Eventually (read 3 hours and about a dozen scuffles between the kids later) we found ourselves at Hedo point, the very top most north area of the island. Here the tempestuous waves of the Pacific Ocean and East China Sea dash against its cliffs, throwing spray high into the air (Should have taken a picture of the spraying waves ;)
During the campaign for reversion to Japan, people used to light bonfires at this cape. Lalee is standing beside marker commemorating the locals struggle to have Okinawa returned to Japan after being ruled for 27 years by America following WWII.

Of course we found ourselves at the beach. Becca and I took an afternoon nap floating on the lounge chair while Lalee and Alex snorkeled. Ahhh.... welcome back sunshine. Please stay awhile!

P.S. YES the water really truly is that clear and beautiful!

Family Night. . . Cooking Challenge

Tonight for our family date we went to a Japanese market. Each team was give 700 yen. The goal was for each team to come up with a meal. There isn't much in the market that is American. You have some basics like your proteins and some of your veggies but practically everything else is foreign. As we have been here a year now (To the day-yikes, time flies!) we are recognizing a lot more of the basic foods and are able to follow picture directions a lot easier although honestly, 99% of the 'translation' is just guessing ;)

We all had 15 minutes. The boys spent 695 and bought:
The girls spent 691 and bought:
We all quickly got to work. I laughed when almost immediately you hear from Pete, " Oh good, (happy sigh) it's what I thought it was!" As he opened a package. Meanwhile us girls were trying to decipher these instructions:
Our beef curry and rice tasted really good although we all wish there had been a little more 'kick' to it. Pete and Alex made a smoothie with pineapple, calpis, and blueberries. Very yummy.
And of course... our desert. Blueberry Kit Kats.
Lots of fun and even more surprising that we didn't end up ordering Pizza when it was all done
(I had secretly planned on it;)

Just some more examples of great Japa-English

Reading Japanese English (or Japa-English as my fam calls it) almost always brings a smile. Below are pictures of three gift bags that we found in a convenience store last weekend. Kind of funny. "I watched the pretty cat which there was on the rook of the neighboring house today. I want to make friends with her. I keep is a secret from other friends. The reason is because I want to make friends with her first."

My puppy played too much and was tired and has slept. What kind of dream do you watch? Let's go for a drive together tomorrow.

The day when I was troubled all day. My pretty puppy, the place are not your rooms. Please, please come out! Are you no use with the soft cushions of this place?

Did I mention these were the ONLY choices of gift bags available? What occasion would you use these bags for?